US rape suspect Nicholas Rossi claimed he is “dying” and being “tortured” in a Scots prison during a courtroom rant.
Rossi, who fled to Scotland from America to escape an array of alleged offences, claimed he’d suffered an undiagnosed heart attack behind bars.
The 35-year-old, who maintains he is actually a man called Arthur Knight, is currently being held in Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison.
Ross appeared via video link at the city’s sheriff court for an extradition hearing on Thursday in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask.
During the hearing, weeping Rossi demanded to be taken to a hospital for treatment and claimed he’d been attacked by prison staff.
Rossi also made bizarre claims about a US prosecutor he accused of framing him over his fingerprints.
He alleged the prosecutor targeted him for “political purposes” as Ross had information about him being involved in “ritualistic child sex abuse”.
Rossi further told the court his mental health was deteriorating and he was suffering from hallucinations.
Rossi, who is accused of faking his own death in the US, was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital last December while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
Earlier his lawyer, John Brannigan QC, told the court he had instructions from his client to request bail.
Sheriff Chris Dickson said any bail application would have to be made to the sheriff appeal court.
Mr Brannigan said the defence were seeking medical and psychiatric reports on Rossi, as well as on conditions in American prisons, which may take some time.
Rossi interrupted proceedings, telling the court: “I need to go to hospital. The Crown have done nothing to remedy the medical issues.
“I’ve had a heart attack.”
Rossi claimed prison officers would turn off the oxygen supply in his cell.
He added: “I need to go to hospital. This is an emergency. I need medical care.”
Fiscal depute Clare Kennedy said the Crown were keen to have the issue of Rossi’s identity dealt with as “expeditiously as possible”.
Rossi interrupted the hearing again, telling te court: “I have 85 per cent lung scarring, I am dying and nothing is being done. I’m being refused medical attention.”
He claimed a prison officer had “punched him in the face” and he was being “tortured” while being kept in custody.
He added: “My mental health is deteriorating. I am hallucinating. I’m having thought which I never had before.
“I am not being afforded my human rights. I know what a heart attack feels like because I’ve had one before. Please let me be evaluated in hospital. I’ve had a heart attack. They can verify that.”
Sheriff Dickson said he was reluctant to wait until a planned hearing in November to progress the case and asked if prosecutors and defence agents could confer on ways to resolve the “identity issue” sooner.
Rossi interrupted once more, claiming his fingerprints were taken at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital when he was a patient and “sent” to a US prosecutor “who sent them back to Scotland” to frame him as the rape suspect.
Rossi claimed the prosecutor confessed to him about being a “paedophile” with “100 victims” and had involvement in “ritualistic child sex abuse” while Rossi was researching a book.
Sheriff Dickson set another hearing on the case for September 15.
US prosecutors claim Rossi raped a 21-year-old in Utah, in 2008. He is also said to have attacked women in Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts. They say he has previously used the names Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight.
Rossi reportedly told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.
